Scathing review of Guy Fieri’s new eatery goes viral

Guy Fieri is known to most TV viewers as the louder-than-loud host of Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” cruising the country in a red ‘67 Chevy convertible and looking for spots serving good old-fashioned down-home food. But based on one major review of his latest restaurant, not even Fieri would park the car for a bite to eat.

Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar opened in New York City’s Times Square in September, and on Tuesday, the New York Times published its review. And unlike most restaurant reviews, this one is making serious waves.

The review, written by Times food critic Pete Wells, is a series of increasingly hostile questions directed at Fieri. It’s one of those one-time-only critical stunts that grabs a lot of eyeballs, but rarely bodes well for the subject of the review.

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And with questions such as, “Does this make it sound as if everything at Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar is inedible?” it’s unclear how Fieri could possibly answer them with anything other than possibly a middle finger.

Other questions raised in the review include, “And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?” And “Is this how you roll in Flavor Town?”

Wells’ final summation of Fieri’s Times Square restaurant? “Poor.”

While many people far from NYC are giggling in glee at the Times’ brutal takedown of a celebrity chef’s restaurant, a debate has already begun online about whether a review like this actually does any good. After all, isn’t Fieri’s establishment designed to attract curious tourists and not NYC’s dining elite (the type who read restaurant reviews in the New York Times).

Fellow Food Network host Alton Brown tweeted words of semi-support, writing, “I am planning on visiting Guy Fieri’s NYC eatery this weekend because it can’t be as bad as all those snooty New Yorkers say. #wishmeluck”